Williams, Bernard Lewis

Case book containing patient records, with enclosed memorabilia; the case-book is described by Mr Williams as `my private record of cases of special interest concerning which I requested follow-up information', but was continued for another two months after his departure from the unit.

Follow-up cards for most of the cases were attached to the relevant pages of the volume. For conservation reasons, these and the other enclosures have been removed to separate folders (GC/172/2-3).

Mr Williams also allowed copies to be made of text and photographs from a scrapbook which he had put together of his service with No 6 Field Surgical Unit (FSU), and of loose photographs, including transparencies.

Bernard Williams was a surgeon and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the RAMC; he was called up from the Reserve at the outbreak of the Second World War. After the fall of France in 1940, he served in Egypt with No 8 General Hospital as a junior surgical specialist, and subsequently with the 2/5 Casualty Clearing Station [CCS] at Mersa Matruh. The highly mobile desert war led to the establishment of Field Surgical Units, to be attached to Casualty Clearing Stations or Field Ambulances to carry out surgical operations before the patients' transfer to hospitals far behind the lines. Williams was in command of No 6 FSU, with the rank of Major, from August 1942 until January 1943, dealing with casualties from the battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein. A copy of his reminiscences of RAMC service, published in St Thomas's Hospital Gazette, Vol 87-88, 1989-1991, is in file GC/172/9.

Williams was also Emeritus Consultant Surgeon for the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Health District.